2010 NEWS ARCHIVE
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Naamah's
Curse is out! I've received reports that it's shipping early, so if
it's not on the shelves in your bookstore, it will be soon. If you ordered
a copy from The Signed
Page, bear in mind that it won't ship until after the signing on June
17th.
This is a busy month for me, as I'll be leaving shortly for a quick book tour (see the Events column on the left for dates and venues), and I've only just returned from the Imaginales festival in Epinal, France. It was my first international convention and my first chance to meet fans outside of North America, and I'm happy to say it was a wonderful experience. I couldn't have received a warmer welcome in the original Terre d'Ange! My only complaint is that thanks to the many rich, delicious meals that stretched out over 2-3 hours, despite walking or, as you can see, bicycling everywhere, I managed to gain weight in a very short time. That, and the fact that crusty French baguettes have temporarily spoiled me for any other kind of bread.
It was hard to believe it had been 15 years since my first trip to France, which inspired the setting of the Kushiel series. But it was a good opportunity to reflect on how much my life has changed during those years, and on how very, very fortunate I am to be able to make a living doing what I love. It felt appropriate to be there as I contemplate writing the ending of Naamah's Blessing, bringing everything in life and literature around full circle. On my very last night in France, I even discovered a store selling Courcel cognac; one of those serendipitous events that feels like the universe is giving you a smile and a wink!
After I finish writing Naamah's Blessing and wrap up promotion for Naamah's Curse, I'll be working on the sequel to Santa Olivia. And as for what comes next.... well, that remains to be seen! I have a few ideas, but I'll need to step back and take a little downtime to let the creative process take place.
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Happy reading!
May and June will be busy months as I gear up for the release of Naamah's Curse while trying to cram in as much work as I can on the last volume in the trilogy. Back in the dark ages of my struggling writer years, things were simpler. I wrote books and stories, sent them out, collected rejections, and kept on writing. Now, there are a lot more steps! Mind you, I'm not complaining, and I wouldn't go back to the old days; but it's frustrating to have to interrupt my creative flow. I envy those authors who can write on the road and make good use of down-time alone in hotel rooms, working away on their laptops! Alas, I'm not one of them. I need the familiar surroundings of my messy study, my special chair and my desktop computer with the big ergonomic keyboard. In the earliest struggling writer days, it was different. I could and did work anywhere, scribbling long-hand in an endless series of spiral-bound notebooks. Maybe some day, I'll try it again, but for now, I'm spoiled! I like having my space, and technology that allows me to work at a much swifter pace. Speaking of technology, after 20+ years, I bought a new television, upgrading from an antiquated little box to a big, glorious flat-screen. Hi-def, Blu-ray, DVR, surround sound system... it's like graduating from an ox-cart to a Ferrari! For the first few weeks, we simply gazed at it in awe. It's a worthy investment, since movies are a good source of inspiration, and documentaries and educational programming can be great ways of doing research, both deliberately and serendipitously. Any time something strikes my fancy, I file it away in the back of my mind. It may be a particularly fine piece of acting filled with subtle nuance and emotional resonance that will inform a scene I'm working on. Or it may be a bizarre factoid, like the existence of snottites. Thanks, BBC Earth! Some day, for some reason, I may need to write about a cave filled with gooey colonies of acid-dripping bacteria. You never know. Once again, check out the Tattoo Gallery for some striking new additions. And in celebration of spring, I've posted a pic of one of my favorites trees, affectionately known as "Big Pink," in blossom.
Preorder signed copies of Naamah's Curse at The Signed Page
I've also posted the first chapter of Naamah's Curse under Extras, below the Events column. It's a lot of recap of the first volume, but at least it gives you a taste! Two new venues this year; at last, some love for British Columbia! And a few familiar venues missing, too. Alas, so it goes. You can still order signed copies from The Signed Page through the link at the top. I'll be signing there on June 17th; please note that copies will not ship until after that date, so you may see it in stores before you receive your copy. A number of readers have written to ask about a sequel to Santa Olivia, which I've mentioned here before. Rest assured, Santitos at Large is still in the works, but it won't be released until 2011. I'll be sure to post a link when definitive information is available. Meanwhile, I'm still working hard on the third volume of the Naamah trilogy. This trilogy covers a lot of territory. I've been thinking about cultural diversity in the genre after very belatedly reading some of the arguments in last year's online "Racefail" debate about the lack of representation of people of color in science fiction and fantasy. Truly, I think the dearth is a shame. It can be intimidating to venture outside the comfort zone of the familiar. There's always the fear of getting it wrong - and, yes, sometimes we do, despite our best efforts. But I find exploring different cultures well worth attempting, both for the richness it adds to the tapestry of story, and for those readers who so seldom find themselves represented in the genre they love. Of course, I deal with a lot of cultures that are no longer existent. In some ways, it lessens the pressure; no one from the Carthaginian Empire or the Kingdom of Kush is going to call me on the carpet to account for myself. In other ways, it's harder, because there's often a limited amount of source material to draw on. Pretty much all I had to go on for my Picts was a list of king's names and some visual artwork. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around one particular culture in this current work-in-progress when I discovered they had a rich tradition of poetry. Reading translations of centuries-old poetry gave me a mental access point into certain practices which we contemporary folk would find abhorrent So there's a small hint about things to come! In the usual round-up, check out the Tattoo Gallery for several new additions, and a nice new piece in the Fan Art Gallery. On the homepage, I'm bidding a farewell to winter with a shot of a local tugboat, because... well, who doesn't like tugboats?
I'm working on the third book in Moirin's trilogy, tentatively titled Naamah's Blessing. I thought I was being clever doing my upfront research earlier than usual on this one, especially last summer when I was summoned for jury duty and had many long hours of waiting. Alas, it turns out there is such a thing as being overly diligent! While it helped me flesh out some plot twists, I'm only just now reaching the sequence of the book where I need all those vivid details to bring a setting to life. I took notes, but the memories they're meant to evoke have faded. Oh, well! Live and learn. If I have to re-research, I have to re-research. As you may have noted from the link atop the page, I'm collaborating with Shawn Speakman of The Signed Page to do a signing for Naamah's Curse. Due to overwhelming demand, we had to limit the personalizations to 75 copies, which sold out quickly, but you can still preorder a signed-only copy. Please note that copies will not ship until after the signing! I don't have a firm date, but it will be in mid-June. Since The Signed Page is located in Seattle, this means I'll also be doing live signing there, where the University Bookstore has already requested me. I don't yet have a confirmed itinerary for the rest of the tour, but other cities under discussion include Chicago, Portland and Vancouver. I will post actual venues and dates as soon as they're confirmed. In other event news, I accepted an invitation to take part in the Imaginales festival in Epinal, France in May 2010. It will be exciting if this actually comes to pass; one always wonders about offers that seem too good to be true! Then I remember that these things tend to be fun, but a fair amount of work, too. No details yet, but I will post them as they become available. And in other international news, Kushiel's Dart was released in Portugal last month. Yay! I did an interview with Portuguese book blog Estante de Livros which you can read here. Check out the Fan Art and Tattoo galleries for new entries, including a rare Cassiline-inspired tat! On the homepage, I'm featuring a lovely piece from a photo shoot that reader Shannon commissioned to show off her marque. Nice!
During the long years when I was a struggling, unpublished writer, my day job was working as the administrative assistant for the Art Department of Hope College. The best part of the job was the people I met there. I made a number of life-long friends among the students and faculty, and I met many wonderful artists through the gallery program. Last month, I learned that one of the latter, Nigerian wood-sculptor Lamidi Olonade Fakeye, passed away in Ile-Ife. The retrospective of his work, and the accompanying catalogue and autobiography, was the biggest project I worked on during my time at Hope. It was held during the fall of 1996, when our esteemed gallery director was on sabbatical, and I was filling in as interim director. Hope College's administration was (and probably is) quite conservative and patriarchal in nature, and I wasn't taken seriously in the role or acknowledged for overseeing what was a fairly massive endeavor. Before Lamidi's arrival to serve as artist-in-residence during the exhibition, I was concerned that he might be offended to find a young woman of no particular status in charge of a retrospective of his life's work. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. The master Nigerian wood-carver, named a UNESCO Living Human Treasure prior to his death, was unfailingly gracious and appreciative. The memory of the credit and respect Lamidi accorded me for a job well done still warms my heart when I think of it. The memory of Lamidi greeting my startled, reticent parents with a beaming smile and an open-armed embrace still makes me smile. Lamidi Fakeye touched many lives during his long and illustrious career. For me, the encounter is a reminder that to be great-hearted and generous of spirit means always according people the respect they're due. It is also a reminder that wherever we go, we are unwitting ambassadors. Lamidi was a devout Muslim, and I'm glad that his was one of the first faces of Islam I came to know well, embodying the tenets of all that's best in his faith. To my regret, I was unable to see Lamidi on his last visit to the U.S., but I'm told he asked about me, and was delighted to hear of my success as an author. I wouldn't have expected anything less from him. And I hope that I'm able to honor his memory by conducting myself with half as much grace throughout the course of my own career. In the usual book-art-related round-up, check out the Fan Photo and Tattoo galleries for more new additions. Artists and art afficianados will want to visit new site Night's Doorstep, dedicated to creative work inspired by Kushiel's Legacy.
It's been a challenging year, and I have to admit I'm glad to see the last of this one. The year 2009 will not go down as one of my favorites. This was a year filled with disruptions, beginning with a catastrophic computer meltdown, followed by an ongoing construction project that resulted in weeks and weeks of screeching saws and pounding nails several feet from my office. And then as regular visitors know, I lost my loyal companion of 14 years, my dog Elaine. All of that, well... sucked. On a happier note, the endless construction resulted in a gorgeous new screen porch, and I'm glad we managed to replace the rickety old one before it collapsed and maimed someone. And in October, we adopted a 4-month-old rescued pitbull puppy named Maya, which presented a whole new set of challenges ranging from the usual puppy-training chores to an epic battle against a nasty case of mange. For a while, the mange mites had the upper hand. In my brother's words, the largely hairless and very pink Maya looked as though she'd been dipped in Nestle's Strawberry Quik. But I'm happy to report that the pink dog is at last beginning to grow hair, and is no longer quite so pink. She's an energetic, goofy little critter. It was the first year in which I had two books come out in a single season, which was interesting. I still think of myself as a relative newcomer to the scene, but when I meet young adults in their mid- to late-twenties who tell me they grew up reading my books, I have to remind myself that it's not so! And when I realize my backlist now contains ten titles, I wonder how the heck that happened. Lots and lots of writing, basically; which is what I'll be doing during these long winter months in Michigan. I'm putting a final polish on Santitos at Large, the sequel to Santa Olivia, which will come out some time in 2011. Naamah's Curse comes out in June 2010, and I'm hard at work on the final volume in that trilogy. What comes next? Well, I have a few ideas percolating. Once I finish this current book, I'll take a step back and let the process of Creative Darwinism take place in my subconscious. I ventured into the world of Facebook this year, where I try to keep things lively and interesting. I've expanded into a few more foreign markets, notably France and Japan, with Portugal waiting in the wings. Here on the homepage, I've posted the cover of the first volume of Kushiel's Chosen in Japan. While I realize it's a cultural aesthetic, Blonde Phèdre never fails to startle me! Just for fun, I launched a quest for a real-world analogue of joie. St. Germain's elderflower liqueur looked like a strong contender based on the narrative of its marketing ploy, but I found it too sweet. One reader recommends mixing it with a good sipping tequila. That, I have yet to try. Thanks, as always, to my readers! Your thoughtfulness and creativity is always a bright spot even in not-so-great times, and I appreciate all you've done to spread the word and convert new readers, allowing me to continue doing what I love for a living. No new tats this month, but there are a couple of new pieces in the Fan Art gallery, including a cool dragon-reflecting eye. Here's wishing all of you happiness, health and prosperity in 2010!
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As
always in closing, be sure to check out the 
Lots
of updates this month! I've posted my attendance at the Imaginales
Festival in Epinal, France and a variety of tour dates for the forthcoming
Naamah's Curse in the Events column to the left. Hopefully, I'll
have details to follow on the Imaginales and Chicago Tribune Lit
Fest appearances; and you can check their official sites, too.
Ah,
March! 'Tis a grey, dismal time in Michigan; but at least it's a
good time to hole up and write, which is what I'll be doing. Which
is what I've been doing for many, many months.
A
pensive post this month! 
Happy
New Year to all!
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